Silent Souls

Овсянки

Synopsis

When Miron’s beloved wife Tanya passes away, he asks his best friend Aist to help him say goodbye according to the rituals of the Merya culture, an ancient Finno-Ugric tribe from Lake Nero. The two men set out on a road trip thousands of miles across the boundless lands.

This film is not currently playing on MUBI but 30 other great films are. See what’s now showing

Melancholic film that examines tradition/ceremony through the story of a husband enlisting another man to help him do the funeral rites for his wife according to Mari El tradition. The man however was also perhaps in love with the wife. Poetic and moving if somewhat austere. Cinematography from Mikhail Krichman quite beautiful as well.

Deeply Touched.Just how hard is it to accept the brutal but basic reality that things must pass away..love,culture,traditions,d way we used to live..gradually decomposes into the rubble excreted by an ever changing world adorned with new sets of values n finds refuge only in some barren corner of our mind and frm der too it eventually fades away.d silence enveloping d film accentuates d silence of d past. A mourning.

Haunting Russian drama about 2 men bound by the same woman, on a journey to give her a proper burial. Nods to Tarkovsky, lost hopes, and faded dreams converge in this eerily effective study on grief. Weak ending aside, it feels remarkably lived in - a melancholy testament to humanity's quest for immortality.

The film follows two close friends delivering the recently deceased wife of one to the afterlife. A great, brooding, haunting and meditative look at tradition, ritual, grief and the passing of time in one particular part of Russia. Perfect cinematography and a solid, complimentary score. Great stuff. 4 stars

Purely artistic, poetic Russian mood piece, about the dying rituals of a practically forgotten small community on Lake Nero. Shot in floating long takes, told in the barest of minimalist voice over and flashbacks, the film looks and feels like the last memory of a cold, small, yet profound existence.